Saturday, March 13, 2010

St. Patrick's day update and short whatevers

Earlier in the month I posted about upcoming St. Patrick's day. Chicago already started celebrating this weekend since it falls on a Wednesday this year (just a minute I need to grab a beer - OK I'm back).

I don't remember when or why, but I signed up for a radio email newsletter (probably got a free song) and the other day it had news about upcoming St. Patrick's day. What caught my attention was the term "Chi-rish" (it included a hyphen) which apparently means Chicago Irish. Like Boston and many large cities, Chicago has a large Irish community. But I have never heard of Chi-rish. I'm sure it comes from a marketing meeting at a beverage company. If any true Chicagoans (especially southside Irish) know of this term, please leave a comment.

I heard back from my Irish friend in Ennis. I asked him to look at that above mentioned post and provide feedback. He did and emailed me back (I don't think he cares to leave comments as many people don't).

Here's a few things he pointed out:

Shannon river and airport are named after the Goddess of the river Sionna.

The bodhran drum is unique in the way it is played. Like other drums it's animal skin stretched over a frame.

Tosser is indeed another word for wanker, but not as strong. (many American don't know what a wanker is but if you look it up DON'T use an image search)

They call their native language Irish, not Gaelic, and can always spot a foreigner when they call it Gaelic.

Irish is taught in both grade school and high school.

----- Now two whatevers -----

As some followers might recall, I listen to "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" most every Saturday morning. I love humor and people who have it. I truly believe humor could solve some of society's problems and it's free. I learned of a lovely humorous woman on today's show.

I didn't know Barbarba Sue Manire but I wish I had because I know from the following picture she must have been fun to be around.

That parking meter on her tombstone reads EXPIRED. Her family honored her wish of having an expired parking meter on her grave. I do believe "her humor lives on". Here's a bit about her story (also a few more pics of it).

Second whatever

Unknown Mami (who I like to call umami - go ahead look that up) alerted me to a new blogger template editor and that doesn't require knowing HTML or CSS stuff. So I have been trying it out. I changed some of the other blogs I have and I will be changing the template of this one too. So if you come by here and don't recognize the place, you'll know it's been remodeled. Let me know if you are interested in learning more about it.

hey, sugar! came over from charlie's to see y'all's st.patrick's day post. i'm down here in savannah, ga, home of the 2nd largest st.patrick's day parade in the country and wanted to see what y'all had to say! enjoy y'all's ber and remember, it's always the cocktail hour somewhere! xox

that's good - maybe you could start going by that. It is a little easier to say than "unknown".I searched around and found a good story about it on NPR. A Japanese chemist who was trying to figure out his tasty soup named this taste "umami," which means "delicious" or "yummy" in Japanese. So you are turning Japanese.

Oh that was interesting. Wein OZ use the expression wanker and tosser in the same way they do in the UK. And that green river, wow, looks kind of cool. I hope whatever they put in the water though it doesnt do any harm to the enviornment...

Thanks for the information on Chicago Irish. I (Irish woman that I am) have quite a few relatives on the east coast, but none in the Windy City. Nice facts about Ireland you have there. I love the sound of the bodhran. I heard a piece of Irish music featuring the bodhran coming through on satellite TV recently when I was cooking in the kitchen here in India recently - I'm tellin' ya, it moved me to tears.....

about lisleman

I was not born lisleman. I moved there. I was born a baby. I started breathing air more than sixty years ago. Oh if you happen to read a news report about
"Lisle man" please notice my moniker is one word. I'm not responsible
for my crazy neighbors.

Sha la la lala live for today.

One of the best things of my life
(everyone's I think) is learning. I like science especially physics.
Don't ever stop asking why because there is an endless amount to
learn. Two of our daughters became teachers. This and our grandkids keeps the learning idea alive for me.

I've accepted that we all have different talents. Most of time this works well for everyone unless your talent is illegal.

Blog on and don't lose that linky feeling.

Does anyone read this far down on these things? I should hide a secret password to a bank account with some money in it. Anyone have a spare bank account with a little cash?